Steven N. Williams

Admissions

California

New York

New Jersey

United States Supreme Court

Education

Fordham University School of Law, J.D. (1992)

New York University (1989)

Steven N. Williams joined Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy in 1997 and became a partner of the firm in 2003. Williams practices exclusively in the fields of litigation, trial, and client counseling. Williams concentrates in the fields of business disputes, constitutional law, environmental, securities, antitrust and consumer law.

Represents (as lead counsel) class alleging antitrust violations in the market for worldwide passenger air transportation into and out of seven Asian nations.

Represented (as lead counsel) class alleging antitrust violations in the market for SRAM. This action recovered overcharges to a nationwide class of consumers of SRAM memory chips, which were subject to concerted price-fixing by their manufacturers.

Represented (as lead counsel) class alleging antitrust violations in the market for Flash memory. This action, similar to the SRAM action, seeked to recover overcharges to a nationwide class of consumers of flash memory, such as memory sticks and cards routinely used to store and transfer data.

Represented (as lead counsel) class alleging antitrust violations in the market for passenger air transportation between the US and the UK. This action led to a settlement valued at over $200 million for passengers overcharged by a price-fixing conspiracy involving air travel between the US and London, England.

Represented Chief Justice George, California Judicial Council, and its members in action brought by New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ challenging California’s Ethics Rules for Neutral Arbitrators. The New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ alleged that California’s Ethics Rules for Neutral Arbitrators were preempted by federal law.

Represented California State Teachers’ Retirement System in separate actions recovering losses suffered due to securities fraud by AOL/Time Warner and Qwest. In these actions, California’s public school teachers recovered over $150 million in losses to their pension and retirement funds.

Represented City of Oakland, California in defense of anti-predatory lending ordinance challenged by American Financial Services Association on preemption grounds. In this action, lobbyists for the banking industry challenged an ordinance passed by the City of Oakland to regulate certain predatory lending practices that were believed to cause damage to the City of Oakland and its residents. We successfully defended the ordinance at both the trial court level, and in a unanimous decision of the Court of Appeals. Ultimately, in a 4-3 decision (with the majority opinion written by Justice Janice Rogers Brown, the decision of the Court of Appeals was reversed. Chief Justice George wrote a dissent expressing his view that the ordinance was not preempted.

Represented residents of Avila Beach, California in action to redress damage caused by pollution throughout Avila Beach. In this action, Union Oil Company of California had permitted over 400,000 gallons of refined petroleum products beneath the small seaside town of Avila Beach. The action led to the complete remediation and restoration of the town.

Represented Consumers Union of United States, Inc. (publisher of Consumer Reports) in defense of defamation/product disparagement actions brought by Suzuki, Isuzu, and Sharper Image. In each of these actions, the manufacturers sought to silence Consumers Union and inhibit its free speech right to warn consumers of dangerous and ineffective products. In each action, Consumers Union’s free speech rights were vindicated. Williams accomplishments in the Suzuki and Isuzu cases resulted in being a Trial Lawyers for Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year Finalist in 2000.

Represented residents of Santa Maria, California, whose community was devastated as a result of oilfield pollution left behind by numerous multinational oil companies, including Unocal, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Kerr-McGee. These actions have enabled residents to move to new homes, leaving behind their polluted neighborhood.

Represented Cambria Community Services District, the sole water provider for the small coastside town of Cambria, in an action against Chevron to recover damages for harm caused when community water supplies were polluted with MTBE. The recovery permitted Cambria to provide replacement water for the community.

Represented class of mortgage borrowers from Ameriquest challenging Ameriquest’s business practices. In this action we were successful in uncovering Ameriquest’s mortgage scheme which was based upon intentionally placing borrowers in mortgages that Ameriquest knew they could not afford. Class wide relief was obtained, including business practice changes.

Williams received his undergraduate degree from New York University and his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. He is admitted to practice before the State and Federal Courts of California, New York, and New Jersey and the United States Supreme Court. He has written and lectured on various topics including electronic discovery, MTBE litigation, regulatory developments in environmental law, contractual issues in environmental cleanups, and habeas corpus.

Williams was appointed by Consumer Attorneys of California as member of California Discovery Subcommittee for revision of California discovery rules and statutes relating to electronic discovery and electronically stored information, 2007-2008. Williams gives yearly lectures to CAOC on topic of civil discovery in California.

Community/Civic Activities

Chairman of the Board of Community Gatepath, an organization dedicated to serving the needs of developmentally disabled children and adults.